"Feeling put to the side"

My relative who is elderly and is usually very active had a nasty incident with their newly adopted cat. The cat headbutted my relative full pelt (accidentally while running between my relative’s feet as they were walking in their home from one room to another). My relative felt excruciating pain immediately in the arch, which was the impact zone, and a large lump formed at the top of their ankle.

My relative didn’t go to ED. They were worried they would be sent away after a long wait with very little assistance (this was as they had recently experienced this when taking their elderly neighbour there, and had also heard similar stories).

Instead, my relative went to the GP in the morning and explained that they appeared to have snapped a tendon in their foot. The GP sent my relative for an x-ray to see if anything was broken.

I saw how swollen my relative’s foot was and that they could not flex their foot. I agreed it was almost definitely a snapped tendon and took them to ED immediately. I stayed to make sure the triage nurse understood the full story but was unable to wait with them. Once my relative was seen by someone in ED, they checked my relative’s x-ray result, told them it wasn’t broken and that they should go home, rest it and ice it. I was horrified as I know how important it is to fix these things as soon as possible and how much a long injury could set my elderly relative back in their activity levels and fitness. I was disappointed that they had not called me or an ambulance at the time of the injury the previous evening. I believe my relative may have been taken more seriously before it became so swollen.

After resting it and putting up with a lot of pain just getting their chores done for weeks, my relative returned to a different GP who referred them for an ultrasound (that is a whole other story about radiology in our “city”). Long story short, months later, my relative has got the results of the ultrasound which confirmed what we were trying to tell the doctors from day one, the tendon is snapped, only now it has been retracted for all this time and it seems will be even more difficult to repair. So now my relative waits for an appointment with an orthopaedic specialist.

After another couple of months, including an orthopaedic appointment with two medical staff and a student present, which I attended, and a phone appointment with physiotherapy, my relative recently had a follow up orthopaedic appointment and a face to face physiotherapy appointment. The specialist asked them why it wasn’t attended to at the time, it is had now been about 4 months. My relative explained and the specialist then suggested that they would have fixed it surgically at the time if it had come to them and my relative would be back to normal by now.

My relative has suffered pain and disability through the initial injury but also mental anguish at repeatedly not being taken seriously. My relative is assuming it is because they are old and not important enough etc. It has set them back and I feel it has set them back more than it should have.

Based on my experience, I hope this story will encourage people who are sick or injured that it is worth the wait in ED and that you know your body best. In my opinion, if you feel something is wrong, be insistent that examinations are done and explanations are given.